Adventures with Dinosaurs

We’re visiting family in Alabama right now, and we just happened to be here during the time that a new live show called Walking with Dinosaurs was playing. We were able to see the last show a couple of days ago. It was amazing. They had life-size realistic moving models of dinosaurs that put on a show describing life in the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. We saw at least 10 of the dinosaurs, maybe more. And they were so life-like! The smaller dinos were moved by an actual person inside the suit. If you looked closely you could see the person’s legs. The bigger dinos were set on specially made small hydraulic cars driven by a person entirely hidden from view. In addition to the person moving the dino, there were 2 other people operating the robotics systems that made the dino move it’s head, tail, and any upper limbs, and make sounds. They even blinked their eyes! Needless to say, it was a dream come true for a 5 year old. He had a great time! I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to go, with or without kids. Here are some pics from the show:

My only complaint – I wish we could have gone down to the arena floor and looked at them up close. I think the munchkin would have gotten a kick out of seeing how they work. We watched a PBS special that explained it the night before the show, so he would know they weren’t real and there was nothing to be scared of (a life size angry mama T-rex can be pretty scary…and loud). But it would have been even better to see it for himself. Ah well, you can’t have everything I guess.